An ex-pole dancer dubbed the “Black Widow” is expected to pocket her late husband’s £1.5million fortune after reportedly being cleared of involvement in his death.
Ganna Ziuzina, 39, was due to face a civil trial next week at the High Court against 47-year-old Barry Pring’s family, who claimed she plotted his murder.
They have dropped the action against his wife, who now goes by the name Julianne Moore.
A legal source was quoted as saying: “The family have withdrawn their allegation that she was involved and have abandoned the case.
“Ms Moore will be absolved of any blame for her husband’s death. That is something she’s said from the very start.”
Mr Pring met the then 28-year-old pole dancer on a dating website and they married in Kiev in 2007.
They were marking their anniversary on February 16, 2008 with a dinner in Mila near the Ukrainian capital when he was hit by a car. Ms Moore was due to be cross-examined via video link from her home in Marbella in a trial expected to last a week.
Her QC John McLinden previously told the court: “She wants me to say publicly the family are completely wrong.”
She was dubbed the Black Widow after a UK coroner ruled in 2017 that Mr Pring was “unlawfully killed”. She took legal action and the finding was quashed at the High Court eight weeks later.
In a pre-trial judgment for the new case Chief Master Matthew Marsh said: “The circumstances of Barry Pring’s death are highly controversial.”
He said a key claim by the family was Ms Moore gave a “false” account of her movements after Mr Pring’s death.
A police probe this year in Ukraine concluded he died in a traffic accident.
A fresh inquest, due in April in Bristol, is expected to hear Ukrainian police no longer think he was murdered.
John Cabot, solicitor for Ms Moore, said a statement would be read in court on Monday.
Lawyers for the Pring family declined to comment on the case.
